Planning an Athens wedding for guests coming from abroad
A destination wedding is not a venue and a list of vendors. It is dozens or hundreds of people, each with a flight, a room, a way to the venue and a question for you. Athens makes this easier than anywhere else in Greece. Here is how to organize it.
One airport,
and it is close.
Athens International Airport has direct flights from most European cities year-round and from many further afield in season. That is the whole advantage — no ferry, no island hop, no second flight. From the airport, the centre is a metro or taxi ride and the Riviera a taxi ride; both are simple enough that guests can manage on their own.
One base,
and a spread of prices around it.
The thing that makes a wedding weekend work is a base — one hotel, or two close together, where most guests are and where the transfers leave from. Pick it near the venue if the venue is on the coast, and central if the wedding is in the city. Then let guests choose: a block of rooms at the base at a group rate, and a short list of alternatives at other prices nearby, so the cousins and the college friends are not held to the same budget.
The transfer is part
of the wedding.
For a city venue most guests can walk or take a taxi, and a note with the address is enough. For the Riviera the transfer is yours to organize. Coaches or minibuses from the base hotel to the venue before the ceremony, and back at the end of the night, in more than one departure so nobody has to choose between the last dance and the bus. A hundred guests is several vehicles; budget it, and give the driver a contact for the day.
The couple’s own car is the easy part. The guests’ transport is the line couples most often forget until the last month.
The shape of the weekend
Three days,
not one.
Guests who have flown for a wedding expect to see you more than once, and a weekend with a beginning and an end is easier to plan around than a single evening.
One place
they can look.
Every guest will ask the same eight questions — when, where, what to wear, where to stay, how to get there, what is on the Friday, whether children are welcome, and what to do about the gift. Answer them once, on a website, and send the address with the invitation. The group chat is for the jokes; the website is for the address of the hotel at eleven at night in a taxi.
The number everything
depends on.
The venue, the caterer, the hotel block and the coaches all need one figure, and it changes until the last month. Track it by party — a couple, a family, a single friend with a plus-one — with a reply, a headcount and any dietary needs, and chase the ones who have not answered before the deadline rather than after. A destination wedding usually lands at fewer guests than the first list; that is normal, and the plan should be built for the number who say yes.
Decide
the rules once.
Whether children are invited, whether single guests bring someone, and who is on the Friday list are decisions that are easier made once than answered forty times. Say them on the invitation and the website, kindly and clearly, and the questions mostly stop.
The Sunday,
and the week after.
A slow lunch on the Sunday sends people off well. After that, guests scatter.
How Aemeli helps
A guest list built for a
wedding away.
Aemeli keeps the guest list by party — who they are, how many, whether they have replied, whether they are coming — so the venue, the hotel and the coaches always have one current number. The website for guests is part of the same plan, at your own address, private until you publish it.
- Every party with a reply, a headcount and a note.
- Who has not answered, in one view, before the deadline.
- A wedding website for the address, the hotel and the weekend.
Questions
Asked often.
Answered plainly.
01 Should our guests stay in the city or on the Athens Riviera?
Near the venue, usually. A coastal wedding is easiest with the base hotel on the coast and the city as a day out; a city wedding is easiest with everyone central. Splitting the group between the two doubles the transfers.
02 How do guests get from Athens airport to the Riviera?
By taxi, in about half an hour outside rush hour; the airport is on the same side of the city as the coast. Pre-booked transfers work well for older guests and for arrivals at the same time; everyone else can take a taxi from the rank.
03 Do we have to pay for our guests' hotel rooms?
No. The convention is that guests pay for their own travel and rooms, and the couple organizes the block, the rate and the information. Covering the transfers to and from the venue, and the meals during the weekend, is the usual extent of it.
04 How far ahead should guests book flights?
As soon as the date and the venue are fixed and the invitation is out. Summer fares to Athens rise through the spring; a save-the-date with the month lets guests watch prices, and the invitation with the details lets them book.
Keep reading
More on a wedding
in Athens.
Five guides, one destination. Each one answers a question every couple asks first.
The destination
Athens
The hub: venues on the coast, the two faces of Athens, and the short answers.
Cost guide
How much does a wedding in Athens cost?
Checklist
Your Athens wedding planning checklist
When to marry
Best time of year for a wedding in Athens
Marrying in Greece
Legal requirements for a wedding in Greece
Start planning
Organize your guests
in Aemeli.
The guest list by party, the replies, the headcount and the website — in the same plan as the venue and the to-dos.
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